Let 16- and 17-year-olds pre-register to vote, Colorado

It’s officially the new normal: For the third presidential election in a row, young voters turned out at historically high rates to cast their ballots. Here in Colorado, young voter turnout exceeded the national average and exit polls showed the youth vote share of the total electorate was 20 percent, up from 14 percent in 2008.

Hopefully those pundits who are more comfortable writing headlines about Millennials’ alleged apathy have spent the last few months reevaluating the power these newcomers can have in politics.

That the most encouraging of trends in civic participation has become the new normal is welcome news at a time when our democracy could use a boost. Our state and country have a complex series of challenges to tackle, so we need the strongest democracy we can muster — meaning, we need everyone to be a part of the solution. But a series of barriers stand in the way, keeping eligible voters who want to participate in their own governance from having a say. Confusing rules, arbitrary deadlines, errors, and long lines keep eligible voters on the sidelines, preventing us from putting our best foot forward as a state and nation.

This session, Colorado’s legislators have an opportunity to usher in another new normal for our elections: convenience and accessibility. They took a first step in that direction in 2009, when they passed the online voter registration bill that we championed, but there are many reforms left on the table that have the potential to significantly strengthen our democracy by increasing civic participation in our state. While it’s our responsibility to show up and cast a ballot, it’s our legislators’ to ensure that we can do so without facing unreasonable obstacles.

For starters, our lawmakers can strengthen Colorado’s democracy this legislative session by increasing opportunities for young people to register to vote. They can do this by passing House Bill 1135, which will be heard on the House floor this week. This bill will allow 16- and 17-year-olds to “preregister” to vote and have that status activate on their 18th birthdays. It would afford young people the convenience of registering at the DMV while applying for a driver’s license, and invite members of the next generation of leaders to prepare in a more meaningful way for their civic duty.

The research has not only shown this policy to be effective at increasing youth participation in other states, but that voting is actually habit-forming. In other words, an early investment in the engagement of young people now will pay great dividends later on. And we know that they’ll form that habit if they’re properly engaged and asked to participate. In fact, of the more than 35,000 young voters New Era registered and engaged across the state in 2012, 86 percent of them actually cast a ballot.

That’s great news for those of us who hold stock in our democracy, which is to say, all of us. Preregistration is the perfect tool to further engage the Millennial generation in the political process, building an even stronger cohort of active, educated citizens who can work together to thoughtfully tackle what lies ahead.

Voting is a responsibility, a duty that we owe to one another — but barriers like several hour-long polling place lines and a slew of confusing rules keep the fulfillment of that responsibility out of reach of many eligible voters. It’s within our power to remove those barriers, so we owe it to our fellow citizens to do so. Our democracy works best when more people show up, but we need to create those conditions that allow for greater participation.

Every eligible voter deserves the opportunity to cast a ballot, and as a state we will be stronger if every eligible voter does just that. Passing House Bill 1135 may just be a small administrative step, but it will result in giant leaps towards creating a more accessible, inclusive democracy.

Steve Fenberg is executive director of New Era Colorado, a nonprofit organization committed to engaging a new generation of active citizens and young leaders in Colorado.

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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